10 million gallons of water. Per day. That is what a single data centre hub in Hayes County, Texas uses for cooling.

 

https://x.com/ProfSteveKeen/status/2081565969852301724

Prof. Steve Keen

@ProfSteveKeen

10 million gallons of water. Per day. That is what a single data centre hub in Hayes County, Texas uses for cooling. It is draining the Edwards Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to the Austin and San Antonio corridor. And that is 'just' the water. Texas data centres have requested 446 gigawatts of grid connections. That is 5 times the state's entire peak power capacity. The last nuclear plant built in America, Vogal in Georgia, took 7 years and its cost doubled from $12 billion to $30 billion. The waiting list for heavy-duty gas turbines is 7 years. Small modular reactors will not exist in the West until the mid-2030s. 90 percent of global gas turbines come from just 3 companies, and they are not expanding capacity because they fear an AI bust. One commentator told Andrew Neil that a lot of these data centres are going to turn into pickleball halls. He might be right. The companies in the vanguard of the technology of tomorrow are about to be strangled by an old-fashioned energy crunch. Trillions in investment, and nowhere to plug it in. Watch the full conversation with Andrew Neil in the comments. #SteveKeen #AIBubble #EnergyCrisis #DataCentres #ArtificialIntelligence #Economics #Infrastructure

12:22 PM · Jul 27, 2026

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https://x.com/ProfSteveKeen/status/2081565969852301724

https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption

Highlights:

EESI Data Center Resources

See all of our articles on the impacts of data centers, including their energy needs, water usage, noise pollution, and contribution to higher energy bills: The Environmental Impacts of Data Centers (Article Series) All EESI Data Center Resources

• Data center developers are increasingly tapping into freshwater resources to quench the thirst of data centers, which is putting nearby communities at risk.
• Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people.
• With larger and new AI-focused data centers, water consumption is increasing alongside energy usage and carbon emissions.
• Novel technologies like direct-to-chip cooling and immersion cooling can reduce water and energy usage by data centers.